Ceilidhs, Cinemas, Calton, and Crammond

As well as the finishing of my first exam of my veterinary career and I'm awaiting the results.

Last night I attended my second ceilidh, this time at the church where I'm apparently filling the void of a Christine who was their American last year (and hence they're not sure what my name is ;) lol). I had a great time, however it got very very warm in the building.

I had a chance to chat with some people who remarked on how I'd managed 5 minutes of conversation without the use of "Awesome" and how Americans can sound so upbeat and happy to be there (when they show up with the "Hey!! What's up??!!"). Still working on remembering names, I'm getting to where I can sort of remember that their faces are familiar.

This was followed with a trip to the cinema for a film (ah, to be able to go to the movies...). The film was Drive, and although it's not a favorite I really didn't mind it (however I cheered the death of Christina Hendricks character mostly because she is a lying traitor in the film and in Firefly). A lot of blood and gore that of course I don't really react to because I'm mutilating small animals in class.

Today because the sun shone and it was an incredibly beautiful day I went to Calton Hill which is home to several monuments and an observatory (Pictures are on Facebook). I climbed the hill and wandered around for a bit looking at some of the skylines before I gave in and payed the fee to climb the Nelson Monument. They gave me a card and on the back of it it gives information about the monument as well as a place to write your name saying you climbed the 170 stairs to the top of the monument. The climb up was 170 steps of a circular staircase that is very compacted and with a few sparse windows occasionally on your way up. I literately felt that I had found a never ending staircase as you just kept circling and getting dizzy. The rewarding view at the top was well worth the long trek up the stairs and the wind was much stronger up there, making me check that I had everything securely tucked away in my pockets.

I also decided to take a short trip to a beach that is about a 30 min bus ride away from the center of the city. There is an island out there that is only an island during high tide, but during low tide there is a walk way that visitors can use to visit the island. I did not go out to the island because I was afraid the tide would come in and I would end up like others before me: stranded on the island until the next day when the tide went out again. I contented myself to walk barefoot through the sand and puddles, picking up shells, and taking pictures.

Tonight, I went back to the cinema for another film; a Brittish film that I felt made Inception an easy to understand film. I honestly will need to watch "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" at least another 2 times I think to understand what happened. I don't think it helped that I was tired and stiff and therefore was having difficulties in focusing on the film. It was a good film, don't get me wrong, but you have to be paying a lot of attention to the little things going on and who is doing what.

I'd also like to report that I had my first pants/trousers near miss: at the ceilidh I was joking around with a how one girl was going to do the man part and I tried to say the American saying of "Who's wearing the pants..." which is of course and acceptable thing to say there, but here its the same saying but with trousers (see previous post on how pants=underwear). So instead it came out as "Well, you are the one wearing the pan---trousers." At least I caught myself....